The Evolution of Communication in the Technology-Focused World Essay

The Evolution of Communication in the Technology-Focused World - Essay Example Current issues are discussed, such as how ‘sexting’ represents a dilemma for public officials, and why it’s important to select complex, hard-to-guess passwords for important online accounts. In all, the paper presents a concise look at a few of the many areas affected by the rapid adoption of technology as a means of communication, and what it will ultimately mean for the duties performed by public officials. Keywords: communication, technology, criminal justice, public sector The Evolution of Communication as the World Becomes More Technology-Focused ‘Communication,’ as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, is â€Å"the successful conveying or sharing of ideas and feelings.† The methods by which such conveyances are made have been widely divergent through time. Whereas in the distant past, the dominant mode of communication might have entailed making gestures combined with short words or phrases to make one’s intentions known, the advent of the modern technological era has spawned an entirely new set of paradigms. The rapid rise in the speed and breadth of global communications enabled by technology has given rise to a number of descriptive labels. Industry expert Manuel Castells, a professor and Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology and Society at the University of Southern California, has dubbed the era as, ‘the network society’ (Castells, 2010). He postulates, â€Å"I contend that around the end of the second millennium of the common era a number of major social, technological, economic and cultural came together to give rise to a new form of society† (p. xvii). The referred to paradigm shift in communication is cited by Castells as creating a â€Å"shift from traditional mass media to a system of horizontal communication networks organized around the Internet and wireless communication† (p. xviii). Adopting a cautionary tone, he notes that a fundamental cultural tra nsformation has taken place, based on digital information processing, that has engendered a â€Å"generational divide† between persons born before 1969, which he marks as the ‘Internet Age’ and those thereafter. While wholesale changes to longstanding global societal structures have doubtlessly created a sense of disorientation among some, the ability to instantly communicate has brought about many improvements worldwide. In the critical area of health care, communication technology has enabled unprecedented levels of access to information on diseases and treatments, which are instantly accessible over Internet-based protocols. Innovations such as Web-based medical collaborations, wherein practitioners in different geographical locations can share data from a single clinical record, have become a vital part of the treatment process (Sands, 2008). Advances in communication technology have completely reorganized the traditional business model. Whereas once only the larger corporate structures had the wherewithal to distribute goods and services worldwide, global access is now easily accessible to even small proprietors.